The device relates to an electric stapler and a cartridge detachably mounted thereon.
As shown in, e.g., Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Publication No. Hei. 4-54683, a conventional electric stapler is of such a structure as to releasably attach a cartridge to an electric stapler main body, the cartridge accommodating a plurality of staple sheets in multi-layered form and having a pressing spring for pressing the accommodated staple sheets downward from the top. The main body includes: a mechanism for sequentially feeding the staple sheets within the cartridge attached to the main body from the bottommost one; a forming means for forming a staple in the front end of the fed staple sheet into a square U-shape; and a driving means for driving the formed staple toward a material to be stapled. Such an electric stapler is, in most cases, incorporated into an apparatus such as a copying machine.
By the way, the stapler is designed so that a jammed staple can be removed by opening the staple driving section when a staple driven out by the driving means is jammed inside the stapler during the stapling operation. However, in the case where the electric stapler is attached to a copying machine or the like, not only the operation of opening the staple driving section is extremely cumbersome because the space within the copying machine or the like in which the electric stapler is disposed is small, but also it is difficult to visibly locate the jammed staple with the driving means and the forming means standing in the way of the staple passage because the driving and forming means are disposed around the staple passage. Accordingly, the operation of removing jammed staples within the apparatus is extremely burdensome.